We got to sleep in this day which was good since many of us needed it after New Year’s Eve. After brunch, the cruise historian gave a lecture about Ernest Shakleton and his infamous voyage. Later that day we had our first landing. Most of the outings included a landing for 1 ½ hours and a zodiac cruise for 1 ½ hours. They take the first half of the passengers to land first while the other half cruises and then they switch. This outing was to Barrientos Island in the Aitcho Islands group. These islands are part of the South Shetland Islands and were originally charted by the Discovery Investigation in 1936. They are named after the Admiralty Hydrographic Office, commonly referred to as H.O. These islands have about 1700 gentoo penguins and over 4000 chinstrap penguins. We were all very excited to see penguins in their natural habitat and we got to see many baby chicks as well.
Our first zodiac cruise!
Penguin highways. They build their nests out of stones so they need to find spots not covered in snow. Many times this means the top of the mountain since the wind will blow away the snow.
While one of the parents watches over the egg/chick the other parent will be out feeding. Of course they need to take a break from eating every once in a while.
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